Andrew Lang
1844–1912
Biography
Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer whose work ranged across poetry, fiction, literary criticism and the study of myth. He was born at Selkirk in 1844, was educated at Scottish universities and then at Balliol College, Oxford, and made his living in London as a journalist and reviewer, producing a steady flow of essays, reviews and verse for the periodicals of the day. He is remembered most widely for gathering folk and fairy tales from many lands.
His scholarly interests went beyond the nursery. In Custom and Myth (1884) he argued that legends from very different peoples preserved older customs and beliefs, a view that placed him among the early folklorists of Britain. With S. H. Butcher he made a prose version of Homer's Odyssey in 1879. From 1889 until 1910 he edited a long run of fairy-tale anthologies, each named after a colour and beginning with The Blue Fairy Book. The tales were gathered from many languages and older collections, and much of the retelling was done with help from others, his wife among them.
Two of his books are in this library. The Blue Fairy Book is the first volume of that colour series, a collection of stories from many countries that became a staple of children's reading. The Arabian Nights Entertainments is the old cycle of tales told by Scheherazade, here in an edition credited to Lang, which shows the same appetite for old stories that drove his folklore work. Between them they show how Lang helped turn old tales into books that families could read together.
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Books
The Arabian Nights Entertainments
by Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang's 1898 selection from the Arabian Nights for young readers: Aladdin, Sindbad, the Little Hunchback, the Enchanted Horse and other tales told by Scheherazade. Genies, caves and sultans fill the pages. The most famous collection of Eastern stories in English.
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.The Blue Fairy Book
by Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang's 1889 anthology of well-known fairy tales includes Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood and Aladdin. Drawing on French, German and Scandinavian sources, the stories are presented in plain, clear language. This book uses the racial and other slurs of…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.